Self-acting fashioning device for circular-knitting machines



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'E; G. BREAITHW-IAITE & J. W. HEPWORTH| SELF ACTING PASHIONING DEVIGE FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES.

No. 521,098. Patented June 5; 18.94.

Ely! (No Mpdel.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

E. G. BREAITHWAI-TE 8: J. W. HEPWORTH. SELF AGTING PASBIONING DIEVIOB FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MAGHINES.,

No. 521,098. PatentedJline 5,1894.

WITNE INVENVTEI HS l L LITHOGRAP (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3. E. 0. BREAITHW'AITE 8: J. W. HEB-WORTH. SELF ACTING FASHIONING DEVICE FOR CIRCULAR; KNITTING MACHINES.

No. 521,098. Patented June 5, 1894.

a g f 4 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST 0. BREAITHWAITE AND OHN W. HEPVORTH, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SELF-ACTING FASHIONI NG DEVICE FOR CIRCULAR-KNITTING MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Iletters Patent No. 521,098, dated June 5, 1894.

Application filed October 15,1892. $erial No. 449.029. (N0 model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, ERNEST O. BREAITH- WAITE and JOHN W. HEPWORTH, both citizens of the United States, residing in the city of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Self-Acting Fashioning Devices for Circular- Knitting Machines, of which invention the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to the well known class of knitting machines described in Patents Nos. 333,102 and 435,378.

The said invention consists of self-acting devices for raising the needles into inoperative position, as required for the purpose of narrowlng the knitted fabric, in knitting the heel or toe of a stocking and for lowering the needles into operative position for widening the same preparatory to knitting the cylindrical portions of a stocking.

In the annexed drawings, Figure 1 represents a plan and Fig. 2 a front elevation of a circular knitting machine embodying our invention. Fig. 3 is an elevation of a portion of the cam and needle cylinders with needles, showing our self-acting raising and lowering devices in two positions by full and dotted.

lines, for the purpose of illustrating the action of the same in raising and in lowering the needles. Figs. 4 and 5 are front face elevations of our self-acting raising and lowering devices, respectively right and left hand, and Fig. dis a plan of the right hand devices.

Fig. 7 is an elevation of a needle provided with a lower and an upper butt.

Similar letters of reference denote similar parts in the several figures.

a. represents the bed plate of the knitting machine; I) the cam cylinder; 0 the needle cylinder; (1 fast and loose pulleys by which power is thrown on and off; and e the yarn guide; all these parts are in the usual form.

f, Figs. 4. and 5, is a plate or bracket forming the foundation for the several working parts of our self-acting raising and lowering devices. The bracket f is rigidly and adjustaloly attached by means of a thumb-screw g, Fig. 2, or its equivalent, to the cam-cylinder b.

h, Figs and 5 is a lever provided with a finger 2', the latter being adj ustably fastened to, or made integral with lever h.

j is a slot in bracketf.

k is a pin projecting from lever 71. through slot j to lever'm which is provided with a slot at.

0 is a pin projecting from bracket f through slot n, said pin 0 forming a bearing for the lever m.

p is a thumb-screw working on pin 0 whereby the levers h and m are adjustably held back out of operative position, as desired.

The parts so far described constitute our device for raising seriatim the needles at one end of the series of operative needles, up into inoperative position; it being intended to be understood that two such devices, one adapted to the right hand and the other to the left hand side of the knitting machine, are used for said purpose as shown in Fig. 1.

Our self-acting device for lowering the inoperative needles into operative position consists of a lever (see Figs. 4 and 5) made in two parts (1 and 'r, united by a hinge joint 8 and flexibly held in line by a spring 25. This lever is provided with a finger u which is rigidly and adj ustably attached to or made in one piece with said part a". v is aslot in bracket f. w is a pin projecting from said part q through slot 1; to lever 50, which is provided with a slot y. z is a spring one end of which is attached directly to bracket fand the other end to the slotted lever to. a is a pin projecting from bracket f through slot y. b is a thumb-screw for securing the levers q, 'r and a: when put into inoperative position. These parts constitute our lowering device; it being intended to be understood that two such devices, one adapted to the right hand and the other to the left hand side of the knitting machine, as shown in Fig. 1, are used.

In action, both the raising and the lowering devices have a compound turning and sliding movement controlled by their respective pins and slots, as shown by the full and'dotted The needle is made a little longer in the shank than the ordinary needle, in order that the upper butt may be located above the top of the cam-cylinder without interfering with the ordinary or lower butt 0 and the needle cylinder is correspondingly lengthened.

Referring to Fig. 2, the yarn guide 6 occupies what is herein regarded as the front of the machine; the operator being supposed to hold a position facing this front; the cams of the cam-cylinder hold positions respectively at and to the right and left of the yarn guide e; the word right as herein used means in a direction to the right of the operator, and left, to the left of the operator.

Upon the completion of the stocking leg, and in order to prepare the knitting machine for knitting the heel, the circular or rotary movement of the cam-cylinder is stopped in the position shown in Fig. 2 and the needles on the rear side of the cylinder 0, to wit:-- one-halfof the whole number of needles, are then raised up clear of the needle cams, or, in other words into inoperative position. The other half of the needles are left down in opoperator from left to right, raising into inoperative position the needle at the left hand extremity of the series of operative needles and the finger '5 of the left hand lifting de-; vice on the reverse movement of the cylinder raising into inoperative position the needle at the right hand extremity of the series of operative needles.

lifting device ready to engage a needle butt 0; as the bracket f advances along with the cylinder to which it is attached, the finger '11 in consequence of the friction or force exert- 1 ed upon it by its contact with the needle butt, gradually rises until it occupies the position shown by full lines to the left in Fig. 3, the needle being carried up with it; and (the bracket still advancing) said finger raises the needles high enough to let the finger pass under the butt of the needle; after which said finger drops by gravity until its rounded under side rests on the upper side of butt 0 of the needle next in the series of operative needles and (bracket f still advancing) then trav' els along on the several butts 0 until it has passed the last needle in the series of operative needles, when it drops into the position shown by the dotted lines to the left in Fig. 3. When the motion of the cam-cylinder is reversed the finger '5 again rises high enough to pass over the tops of the needle butts c and when it has passed the last of those to the left, it again drops into the position shown The dotted lines to the left in Fig. 3 show the finger of the right hand by the dotted lines to the left in Fig. 3, and is then ready to pick up, on the forward movement, the next needle.

It is to be understood that the right and left hand lifting devices act alternately, the

i right hand device on the forward movement raising the needle occupying the extreme left, and the left hand device, on the reverse movement, raising the needle occupying the extreme right in the series of operative needles; also, that the actions of the left hand lifting device are similar to the above described actions of the right hand lifting device; and also, that these lifting actions are continued until enough of the operative needles have been raised up into inoperative position to eifect the required narrowing of the knitted fabric.

The operation of our lowering devices is as follows:-On the forward movement of the cam-cylinder, the finger u of the right hand lowering device strikes the upper side of the upper butt 0 of the needle occupying the extreme right of the inoperative needles, as ndicated by the full lines at the right in Fig. 3, and lowers this needle to the extent indicated by the dotted lines at the right in Fig. 3, or, in other words, the last needleraised by the raising device in moving from left to right is usually the first needle lowered by the lowering device moving from left to right, in order that the widening may begin where the narrowing left 0%. As the bracket f advances along with the cam-cylinder, the rounded lower portion of fingeru comes in contact with theupper side of thelast named butt, the spring controlled hinge-joint 3, together with the self-adjusting connections of the slotted levers q, r and or giving enough flexibility to said finger to enable it to ride up easily on top of said butt and thus release itself; whereupon springs draws said finger upward and (the bracket still advancing) causes it to strike the under side of the up per butt 0 of the next needle; finger it then moves along in contact'with the lower side of the butts 0 of the remaining inoperative needles, the springt bringing finger u up into its normal position as soon as it has passed the last of the inoperative needles. When the movement of the cam-cylinder is reversed, the rounded lower portion of the left hand finger it comes in contact with the upper butt 0 of the needle occupying the extreme left of the series of inoperative needles and raises it as just described, the hinge-joint s enabling finger a to easily pass back again under the butts of the group of inoperative needles on that side and (the bracket f, still moving) pass under the upper butts a of all the inoperative needles and upon passing the last of them assume, through the action of spring 15, its normal position. It is then ready to lower the next needle as it again advances on the forward movement, when the above described operations are repeated.

It is to be understood that the right and left hand lowering devices act alternately, the

extreme left in the series of inoperative needles; also, that the actions of the left hand lowering device are similar to the above described actions of the right hand lowering device, and also, that these lowering actions are continued until all or any required less number of the inoperative needles have been lowered into operative position.

It will be seen (first) that our raising and lowering devices are not hidden by the camcylinder as in previously existing machines, but are raised up into view so that in case any portion of them work improperly, it can be readily seen and adjusted without taking the machine apart; (second) that in cases where the raising and lowering levers are arranged to turn on fixed centers, the needles are raised or lowered by them toacertain extent and the work then finished by fixed auxiliary cams; Whereas our raising and lowering devices being provided with variable selfadjusting bearings are of themselves capable of raising and lowering the needles; (third) that when the raising and lowering devices work on fixed centers a little wear on their free ends spoils their adjustment and necessitates their removal, but when these devices have self-adjusting bearings like ours, wear on the levers does not affect their working.

Instead of employing a single bracket for the raising and thelowering devices, the raising device may be attached to one bracket and the lowering device to aseparate bracket if desired.

We claim-- 1. The self-acting needle raising device consisting of a, bracket f provided with a slot j in combination with the lever h provided with the finger z, the pin k, the lever on provided with a slot n and the pin 0, substantially as set forth.

2. The self-acting needle-raising device consisting of .a bracket f provided with a slot j in combination with the lever it provided with the finger i, the pin 70, the lever m provided with the slot n, the pin 0 and thu mb-screwp, substantially as set forth.

3.The self-acting needle lowering device consisting of a bracket f, provided withaslot '0 in combination with a lever made in two parts q and 'r united by a spring controlled hinge-joint 3, pin w, lever m provided with a slot y, a spring 2 and a pin a, substantially as set forth.

4. The self-acting needle lowering device, consisting of a bracket f provided withaslot v in combination with a lever made in two parts q and r united by a spring controlled hinge-joint 3, pin w, lever w provided with a slot y, spring 2, pin (1, and a thumb-screw 12', substantially as set forth.

ERNEST G. BREAITHWAITE. JOHN W. HEIWORTH.

Witnesses:

J. E. SHAW, WILLIAM PEARSON. 

